Yo yo friends. So, how do you feel about In vitro fertilization? I have recently been learning quite a bit about this. Infertility affects 6.1 million people in the the United States. When people are unable to have children, they can in vitro fertilization done. IVF is a process where the mans sperm and the womans egg are combined in a labratory in a dish. Sounds kinda weird huh? Then after the sperm combines with the egg and fertilization happens, the embryos are placed inside of the woman's uterus. 2-4 embryos are usually put inside the uterus at a time. Not all of them take however.

IVF cost a lot of money. It is $12,400 for one cycle alone. I thought it was interesting that before the process of putting the embryos in, the woman has to take a lot of hormonal drugs to prepare her body for the embryos. So she gets super emotional..haha. Anyways, I've read some blogs about the process and many woman say it's pretty painful but worth it. So the main concern that people have with in vitro fertilization is that there are a lot of embryos that get fertilized, but not all of them get used. Some say that this is like abortion. Many people wonder what to do with the extra embryos.

It's very intersting all of the things you can actually do with the embryos if you don't want to throw them away. If a couple wants to save their embryos and have the child later, they can keep them frozen in the IVF clinic. It costs $700 dollars a year to keep the extra embryos frozen in the lab. Crazy. But if you don't pay up, then they will "toss" your embryos. Yikes.

So, another thing that couples do is give their extra embryos to other couples that can conceive a child. Doctors simply place the extra embryo in the adoptive mother and she will give birth to the child. At first I thought this was super weird, but I guess it's pretty much almost like normal adoption except the adoptive mother actually gets to carry the baby in her womb.

Another option couples have is to donate their embryos to stem cell research. If you read my previous blog, you will note what stem cell research is. And the last option is to simply have the people at the clinic scientifically "throw" the embryos away. So, the question is like it is with many other scenarios, "when does life begin?" Many wonder if its okay to simply throw the embryos away.

If I can't have kids one day, and if I'm rich, I would totally get in vitro done. I think its a great thing for couples. I would donate my extra embryos to stem cell research or a couple that can't have kids. I think In vitro is an awesome thing.